George R.R. Martin teases five ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoffs for HBO

Earlier this month, word began to spread that HBO was developing a series of Game of Thrones spinoffs to carry on the franchise’s legacy once the eighth season concludes in 2018. On Sunday, author George R.R. Martin confirmed those reports, while delivering an interesting revelation of his own.

“Yes, it’s true. More or less,” Martin said on his blog. “Though, as is all too common these days, various distortions and misapprehensions have crept into some of the reports along the way. And television being the fast-moving business that it is, there have already been some further developments.”

First and foremost, Martin doesn’t like the term “spinoff” in reference to these projects. While these new stories will be set in the same world as the original novels, they are all prequels to the events of the show currently on the air. And with thousands of years of history to explore, we shouldn’t expect to see any of our favorite heroes or villains popping up in any of the shows in development.

“Yes, I am involved, and have been for months,” Martin writes. “I had my first meeting with HBO about the possibility of a successor show back in August, when I pitched them two possible series. (One of those is among the concepts being developed, one is not). In the months that followed, other writers were brought in and pitched other ideas. Ultimately HBO decided to go ahead with four separate developments, to be written by Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Brian Helgeland, and Carly Wray.”

While these elements of the original reports were correct, Martin says that he has met with all four writers, not just two of them. Additionally, Martin says that a fifth writer has been added to the mix to develop a fifth script. Martin wasn’t willing to reveal the name of the writer, but says that “aside from me and maybe Elio and Linda, I don’t know anyone who knows and loves Westeros as well as he does.”

Finally, Martin told his fans what the successor shows would not be, so as not to get their hopes up:

They aren’t doing Dunk & Egg, as Martin wants to finish telling his own tales of the two iconic Song of Ice and Fire characters. He doesn’t want to bring their stories to TV until the books are done.

They’re not doing Robert’s Rebellion either, because it won’t be worth telling once Game of Thrones has concluded. Martin says that there won’t be any surprises left.

Martin concedes that it’s very unlikely all (or even most) of the series will make it to air. HBO has commissioned five pilot scripts, which means that even if the pilots are filmed, there’s still a chance they won’t get picked up and will never see the light of day. That said, as big of a hit as Game of Thrones has been for HBO, it would be shocking if one or two of these shows didn’t get picked up to series.